There's an old Terry Richardson photo going around the Internet that depicts the sexual harass-y fashion photographer in flagrante with an unidentified woman. Who is she?

The site that first posted the photo, the appropriately named TotallyNSFW.com, pointed out that the woman looks a lot like Juliette Lewis. Gawker seems to find this argument convincing, but the actress's publicist issued an unequivocal denial — and even flacks rarely outright lie. And although Lewis and Richardson did a shoot together that dates to approximately the right period, Lewis's hair in those photos is significantly shorter (and a little bit redder) than the woman in the picture. The woman in the photo also seems younger than Lewis.

We got an angry email from Juliette Lewis' publicist (she must be doing pretty well if she has …
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So what do we know about this photo? A source familiar with Richardson's studio says it was definitely taken there "a few years ago," because the paintings on the wall have changed. It depicts the photographer best known for saying things about breaking into modeling like, "It's not who you know, it's who you blow!" And for being really creepy towards some of the women who pose for him.

Conspiracy theories about the photo are inevitably already circulating online. Some people, perhaps mistaking the flash lines from Richardson's signature lighting style are Photoshop outlines, think it's 'shopped. Commenters on TotallyNSFW think it's real, but that the woman depicted is the porn star Taylor Rain. (Rain indeed bears a resemblance to the woman in the picture, and there is no shortage of pictures of her mid-coitus online for anyone interested in making a thorough comparison, but at 5'3" she doesn't seem tall enough, and her eyebrows are wrong.) I've checked, and the photo does not appear to depict any of the several better-known Richardson models the photographer has photographed fellating him or having sex with him over the years.

My best guess? This is a photo from Richardson's personal, "art" work, not an out-take from a fashion shoot. It likely depicts an unknown art model who bears a passing resemblance to Juliette Lewis, and whose unidentified naked picture is consequently now all over the Internet. Most likely, the photo has lingered for years in the pages of one of Richardson's many photo books, perhaps Kibosh [totally NSFW], until someone saw it and thought, 'Hey, I'm going to put that on the Internet!' And now, ripped from its context but attached (convincingly) to a powerful man and (dubiously) to a famous actress, the photo flits from site to site. I hope the woman depicted was consenting, not only (of course) to the sexual activity, but to the publication of this particular image. (And if she was, then all power to them both. And if it was published in a book, it would be reasonable to presume that the model signed a release for this image, at least in the absence of convincing evidence otherwise.) That just leaves one more question: how did this as-yet anonymous model end up fucking Richardson at a shoot?

UPDATE: It is, in fact [NSFW], from Kibosh, although the model is not identified by name in Richardson's work.